About me

This blogname was derived from the novel The Secret Life Of Saeed The Pessoptimist by the Palestinian Israeli Emile Habiby: absurdism as weapon against the (ir)realities of daily life in Palestine/Israel. (The subtitle is from a book by Dutch author Renate Rubinstein. It could as well be my motto).
My real name is Martin (Maarten Jan) Hijmans. I've been covering the ME since 1977 and have been a correspondent in Cairo. I started my 'Abu Pessoptimist' blog in January 2009 out of anger during the onslaught in Gaza. The other one, The Pessoptmist, is meant to be a sister version in English. (En voor de Nederlandstaligen: ik wilde in november 2009 een tweede blog in het Engels beginnen en ontdekte te laat dat als je één account hebt, een profiel dan meteen ook voor allebei de blogs geldt. Vandaar dat het nu ineens in het Engels is... So sorry.)

Tuesday, January 2, 2018

Twenty one people killed after five days of unrest in Iran

(Anadolu)

Nine more people have died in overnight clashes between protesters and security forces in Iran, state television has reported, as unrest in the country entered a sixth day.
State TV said six protesters were killed as they tried to storm a
police station in the town of Qahderijan in the central Isfahan region.
It also said an 11-year-old boy and a 20-year-old man were killed in the
town of Khomeinishahr, while a member of Iran’s paramilitary
Revolutionary Guard was killed in the town of Najafabad. All three were
shot by hunting rifles, which are common in the Iranian countryside, the
report said. None of the reports could be confirmed independently.
It is estimated that 21 people have now died nationwide in unrest
linked to the demonstrations, the largest in Iran since its disputed
2009 presidential election.
Protests over the weak economy and a jump in food prices that began on Thursday in Mashhad
have spread to cities across the country and taken on a political
dimension. Some protesters have chanted slogans against the government
of Iran’s moderate president, Hassan Rouhani, and the supreme leader,
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The semi official Ilna news agency quoted a deputy governor of Tehran
province as saying that 450 people had been arrested in the capital
alone since Saturday. No nationwide arrest figures have been released by
authorities since the demonstrations began.
Videos posted on social networks on Monday appeared to show riot
police becoming more confrontational. Protesters were seen attacking
government buildings and shattering windows in an escalation of the
unrest.
Observers reported riot police riding on motorbikes and wielding
batons on the streets of Tehran. Similar scenes were reported in other
cities.
Iran blocked access to social networks including Telegram and Instagram
on Sunday, but insisted the move was temporary. Iranian officials
appeared more conciliatory than in their handling of previous protests
and acknowledged that some protesters have legitimate economic
grievances.